How To Break Through Fitness Plateaus

If you’ve been training for more than a year, chances are you've hit a plateau at some point. How we deal with plateaus has a huge effect on our progress. This article will help you ask the right questions to figure out why you aren't seeing progress, and guide you towards your goals again.

Are you sleeping enough?

Without adequate sleep, even the best program will yield poor results. Lack of sleep leads to decreased energy, poor food choices, increased calorie consumption, and lower testosterone levels. If you find your progress at the gym plateauing, the first thing you should do is prioritize sleep. Unfortunately, when people are frustrated by a lack of progress, they tend to increase their time in the gym at the expense of sleep. This begins a vicious cycle that increases stress on the body and leads to burn out.

Instead of more time in the gym, try less: 3 workouts a week with 7+ hours of sleep per night will yield much better results than 6 workouts a week on 4 hours per night. By thinking of sleep as a required part of your fitness program instead of a luxury you can't afford, you'll feel better and notice more progress in the gym.

Are you recording your workouts?

How do you know if you're making progress if you don’t record each workout in detail and compare it to your last one? By tracking everything you do at the gym, you can tell if you're making slow and steady progress, or no progress. Your workout log should include weight lifted, reps, sets, and rest time. If each workout improves even slightly compared to the last, it's best to stick with that program. Keep in mind that improvement might mean more weight lifted—but it could also mean lifting the same weight for the same reps in less time. Tracking your workouts will let you know if it's time to change your program or keep at it.

Are you eating properly for your goals?

If you're looking to add muscle, you need to eat a ton of food. Adding muscle comes with a high metabolic cost and the more muscle you add, the harder it will be to continue adding more. Every additional pound requires your body to maintain it, pump blood to it, and carry it around. Workouts tell your body to build more muscle, but that's not possible without enough quality calories. Changing programs or increasing your workouts without increasing your caloric intake will only stress your body further. On the other hand, if you are trying to lose weight but are eating too many calories, you won't see results either. Weight loss requires a caloric deficit, which means you need to burn more calories than you take in.

Have you adapted to your program?

If you’re sleeping well, eating properly, tracking all your workouts, and still not seeing results, it might be time to change your program. Workouts provide stimulus, and your body adapts by getting stronger and/or building muscle and/or burning fat. As the body adapts, the stimulus required increases and the change it elicits decreases. A beginner might add 20 lbs of muscle in the first 6 months, whereas a lifter with 10 years experience might only add 5 lbs in a year of dedicated training! You need to change your program to challenge your body in a novel way. This could mean a program with higher volume or higher intensity—either way, stick with it long enough to progress. My Advanced Hypertrophy Programs offer a fun way to break through plateaus with one 6-hour workout! Unfortunately, you can’t keep lifting progressively heavier weights indefinitely. You need a periodized program to see continual growth. I will go over periodization in another article coming soon.

Book a consult to figure out how you should structure your workouts!